Tuesday, March 13, 2007

This has been my knitting diversion of the last week and it happens to be a stash-buster to boot, due to much leftover cotton from this uh, boner.

Drum roll puh-lease!

Modeled by my lovely fellow cube farmer, Brenita!

Nothing like a little Swiss cheese to wrap around the old neck. And due to its fiber content and many holes, this lovely cheesy rectangular wonder is THE spring accessory for peeps who like to play with their food just as much as they like eating it. Pair it with a half-slice of olive loaf and you've got yourself one DELI-licious outfit!

"I Knit The Cheese" was just as easy to work up as it will surely be fun to wear! I worked the openings in wherever I felt the need for one using my "hole charts" for assistance. Basically, I came up with three sizes of openings (small, medium, and large) and charted the stitches needed (or not needed in this case) in excel.

Working charts from the bottom up, I bound off the first 1 - 3 stitches (depending upon the hole size) of the future opening, then worked even across the rest of the row before turning and working back toward bind off. At this point I began working with two skeins of yarn, attaching at opposite side of bound off area. Using my chart(s) as a guide, I made the bottom half of the opening(s) larger by decreasing one stitch on each side of the hole(s). Conversely to make top half of the hole(s) smaller, I increased one stitch on each side of opening(s). To close hole(s) I casted on the same amount of stitches as the beginning bind off and continued knitting across entire row. I repeated that process over and over at random points on the scarf for a perfectly Swiss cheesy look! Finally I cleaned up the hole edge(s) with a round of single crochet. I just think the crochet makes it look cleaner.

Anyway, I encourage you all to try knitting some cheese. It's fun, fast and you get a pretty cool accessory at the end of the journey.

How metaphoric is it that I was knitting fabric with holes? The unconscious is amazing is it not?

I particularly like the fact that it's freaky in a subtle, subversive way. Just a pretty scarf with holes in it, like so many. Except than you take a closer look at it and realize you're looking at cheese!